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Knapford
Knapford is a small town with a population of 2,000 on the River Els estuary, south of Tidmouth. It's known for its farming, fishing, and fowling. History Railway Series The present passenger station, Knapford Junction, is the third one built in the town, and was built in 1956 when the harbour development scheme was launched due to congestion at Tidmouth Docks. The station serves as the junction of the Main Line and Thomas' Branch Line. There is also a freight-only station at Knapford Harbour, where Percy went to sea after asking his trucks to push him past a warning board and where Bulstrode nearly drowned in a nasty accident with some stone trucks. The harbour line from Elsbridge to Knapford was opened in 1885 and used horse-pulled wagons. In 1905, A. W. Dry and Co. extended the line to Tidmouth with a road-side tramway using "Coffee Pots" engines. Although the line was destroyed by a gale three years later, the "coffee-pot" engines remained, even after the formation of the North Western Railway. In 1912, the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Railway joined with the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway and a connecting line was built from Knapford to Crosby. When the North Western Railway opened, a bay platform was opened at Knapford for the line to Elsbridge. The lead mines at Toryreck closed in 1930, but opportunities of stone traffic from Ffarquhar opened and the line to Elsbridge was extended. In 1956, the improvement scheme of the harbour at Knapford was started, the branch was rebuilt on an easier gradient and the stations were moved north of the river. The first line is now used for goods. Knapford is useful as a harbour, but not ideal, which is why the Arlesburgh branch was reopened in 1966. The Knapford station is the fourth one, built in the town in 1984. It has two platforms, a glass roof, and about eight trains a day. Several maps show the main line terminating at the junction, though some books mention that the terminus is Tidmouth. What's more, Knapford appears to be the larger than Tidmouth, whereas the Reverend W. Awdry stated in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways that it's smaller than Tidmouth. The name comes from the parish of Knapwell, where the Reverend W. Awdry was vicar. Television Series Knapford is the "big station" in the television series. It has a large canopy. The station has six tracks total, four being through tracks and two being terminal tracks. Knapford has a refreshment kiosk, the Engine Drivers locker room, M.C. BUNN and a bookstall. At one point, the bookstall was temporarily replaced by a toy shop. In Tale of the Brave, the station has given a new track layout and signal gantries were added above the lines. Trivia *Knapford has been seen in every season, with the exception of the fifth, where it was replaced with Kirk Ronan. *Percy once took the oil painter to Knapford station while looking for the Spirit of Sodor, but the painter complained that it was too busy. *Knapford and its station have gone through many changes: **The harbour seen in the background vanished after the first season. **In Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the town beside Knapford was missing and replaced with trees. **Starting from the seventeenth season, a duplicate of the bookstall seen behind tracks 3 and 4 has been placed in the car park, making it impossible for a normal-sized car to enter one of the parking spaces. The luggage weight also overlaps part of the car park lines. **From the eighteenth season onwards, the tracks into Knapford station gain crossovers, and gantries similar to those seen in the first four seasons were added. These redesigns were aided in part by SiF users Simon Martin and Sean O'Connor. The tracks leading out from Platforms 3 and 4 also end at sets of buffers. **In The Adventure Begins, the station gained a large shunting yard close by, complete with a coal hopper and several sheds and sidings. The station also gains signal gantries and crossovers at the back of it. **As of the nineteenth season, the "Knapford Railway Station" lettering is white instead of black. **From the nineteenth season onwards, the open lines at the the side of the station have been replaced with a shunting yard. *In the first season there were lead mines behind Knapford station, but these were never seen or mentioned again, meaning they must have been closed down. Gallery ThomasandtheBreakdownTrainRS8.PNG ThomasandGordon14.png ThomasandGordon15.png ThomasandGordon16.png ThomasandGordon64.png JamesandtheCoaches5.png TroublesomeTrucks7.png|James and some trucks at Knapford TroubleintheShed37.png DirtyObjects8.png OfftheRails9.png DowntheMine8.png OldIron6.png|Edward racing through Knapford Edward'sExploit25.png|The station clock ThomasGetsBumped27.png|Thomas enters Knapford ThomasGetsBumped35.png ThomasandStepney11.png|Knapford in Season 4 PaintPotsandQueens7.png|Knapford decorated for the Queen's visit PaintPotsandQueens36.png ThomasandtheMagicRailroad2.png|Knapford in Thomas and the Magic Railroad ThomasandtheMagicRailroad281.png|Diesel 10 entering Knapford ThomasandtheMagicRailroad389.png|Sir Topham Hatt's office TwinTrouble34.png|Donald and Douglas at Knapford It'sOnlySnow6.png BestDressedEngine37.png SpicAndSpan4.png ThomasandtheToyShop9.png|The toy shop ThomasandtheShootingStar19.png ThomasandtheBillboard1.png ThomasandtheBillboard98.png HeroOfTheRails367.png|Knapford in CGI JittersandJapes6.png|The road entrance at Knapford EdwardtheHero75.png|Back of Knapford Station EdwardtheHero84.png|Harold at Knapford FieryFlynn4.png ExpressComingThrough73.png KingoftheRailway80.PNG GordonRunsDry3.png Thomas'Shortcut38.png Thomas'Shortcut98.png OldReliableEdward48.png OldReliableEdward55.png SignalsCrossed72.png SignalsCrossed73.png ThomasandtheEmergencyCable6.png|Knapford's road entrance from the air Spencer'sVIP87.png LastTrainforChristmas58.png|Knapford Junction in winter SamsonatYourService48.png ThomasandFriends:TheAdventureBegins56.png TheTruthAboutToby111.png LostProperty(TAFepisode)2.png Diesel'sGhostlyChristmas258.png Sodor'sLegendoftheLostTreasure129.png|Knapford in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure ThomasandtheMagicRailroad501.jpg|The Sodor Railway sign at Knapford KnapfordStationCGIpromo.png ThomasKnapfordCGIpromo.png Knapfordpromo.jpg EdwardKnapfordPromo.PNG HenryKnapfordPromo.PNG GordonKnapfordPromo.PNG JamesatKnapfordCGIpromo2.jpg TobyKnapfordPromo.PNG Merchandise Gallery WoodenDeluxeKnapfordStation.jpg|Deluxe Wooden Railway WoodenRailwayKnapford.jpg|Wooden Railway Take-AlongKnapfordStation.jpg|Take-Along Take-n-PlayKnapford.jpg|Take-n-Play TOMYKnapford.jpg|Motor Road and Rail BachmannKnapfordstation.jpg|Bachmann Category:Thomas and Friends landmarks Category:Landmarks Category:Thomas and Friends stations Category:Films, TV Shows And Wildlife Wiki